An injury has sidelined T.J. Dillashaw (6-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC), forcing him out of the next UFC on FOX event.

But a Washington native has stepped up to fill the gap at UFC on FOX 5 in Seattle. Bryan Caraway (17-5 MMA, 2-0 UFC) will fill in for Dillashaw against Mike Easton (13-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC), UFC officials on Tuesday announced.

UFC on FOX 5 takes place Dec. 8 at KeyArena in Seattle. The Caraway-Easton bantamweight fight will be part of the FUEL TV-broadcast preliminary card prior to the main card on FOX.

Caraway in July made it 2-0 in the UFC after his run on Season 14 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” After debuting at featherweight with a submission win over Dustin Neace in December 2011 at the TUF 14 Finale, he dropped to 135 pounds and submitted Mitch Gagnon at UFC 149 in a “Fight of the Night” performance.

Easton brings an eight-fight win streak to the fight. He debuted with the UFC a little more than a year ago with a TKO of Byron Bloodworth. Since then, he has decision wins over Jared Papazian and Ivan Menjivar, the latter coming in July at UFC 148 in Las Vegas.

Dillashaw was seeking his third straight UFC victory after wins over Vaughan Lee and Walel Watson. The Team Alpha Male fighter, like Caraway, is a product of TUF 14.

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